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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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014 221 619 A 



NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL . . 

POLITICAL REFORM. 

Official Document on Extravagance of the Tammany lling. 



Over $50,000,000 a year Spent and no Accounts 

Rendered. 



Del)t Increased in 28 Months, - - $50,134,138 65. 
Debt Increased in last 4 Months, - 10,854,959 81, 



At a meeting of tlie Twentj-iirst Yv^ird Council of Political 
Reform, lield on tlie 29th June, 1871, the President, Honorable 
Thomas Yv^ Gierke, in the Chair, General J. C. Jackson, Secre- 
tary, the following Report on the City and County Debt and 
Finances was made by Dexter A. Hawkins, Esq., and by a 
unanimous Yote ordered to be given to the press. 

At a meeting of the New York City Coimty Council of Po- 
litical Reforui, held at their Rooms in the Plimpton Building 
on July 11, 1871, the Report was unanimously adopted as an 
Official Document of the Council, and ordered to be printed in 
pamphlet form for general circulation. 



V 



„ N 5 54 



Gentlemen : For two years and four months, ending on 
May 1st last, tlie Mayor and Comptroller of the City of New 
York kept the tax-payers and the public in ignorance of the 
manner in which they expended and disbursed the public 
revenue. 

NO ACCOUNTS MADE PUBLIC. 

In that period over $100,000,000 of ] public money passed 
through their hands. Yet the law and the custom was clear 
and uniform that the Auditor should make a report quarterly, 
showing to a cent, first, for ivhat every dollar of public mone}' 
was paid out ; and second, to irJtom paid ; and third, ivhev 
paid : and that the Comptroller should make his reports at 
the eml of each year, showing for the year the whole financial 
transactions of the city and of the county, and a minute state- 
ment of the city and county debts and liabilities ; and that on 
the 1st of January of each year the Mayor should, in his an- 
nual message, give to the public a summary statement of these 
important facts. 

The quarterly reports of the Auditor and the annual reports 
of the Comptroller were published and distributed to the press, 
and also to all tax^payers and bondholders who called for 
them. 

This honest and old-fashioned practice of our public serv- 
ants ceased on January 1, 1869! From that date till this 
present month of June, 1871, going on three years, they con- 
cealed from the public eye what they did with the public 
money. But in order to silence the public clamor, they did 
put forth, just before election, a false statement of the public 
debt, signed by three of the wealthiest men of the city, Messrs. 
AsTOR, Egberts and Taylor. 

REPORTS MADE TO DECEIVE THE PEOPLE. 

Finally, on the 12th of this month, the Mayor and Comp- 
troller, ii^ general statements and round auimbers, claim to tell 

I 

I I 



.V 



us wliafc tliey liave done witli over one hundred millions of 

public money, and what is the present debt of the city and 

^ county. But no Anditors report is made public ; yet it is only the 

^ Auditor s report that ^^'ill show to ivJiom the money was paid, 

and luheii paid, and /or lohat paid. 

No Comptroller's report even is made public for the year 
1869. 

These statements have not the clearness, footings, system or 

2m.rtieidars that heretofore have characterized such documents. 

They hear on their face ecidence of an intention to mislead, and 

confuse, and deceive, histead of to enlighten the tax-payer and 

public creditor. 

ENORMOUS GROWTH OF DEBT OFFICIALLY 
ADMITTED. 

But the figures of the Mayor and Comptroller show : 

1. A greater expenditure, 

2. A larger indebtedness, and 

3. A more reckless extravagance than the bitterest enemies of 
the city rulers had ever alleged against them. 

In order to show clearly the financial character of their 
administration, I have compiled wholly fro)n official sources, and 
liad examined by an accountant, the following annual tables, 
showing the city debt and the county debt from December 31, 
1858, to May 1, 1871, excepting the year 1869 ; no report has ever 
been made public for that yeo,r, and as the tax-payers are not 
permitted to inspect the public accounts, I could not fill out 
the table for 1869. 

The report for the year ending Dec. 31, 1870, was not made 
till the 12th of this present m.onth of June; being cfter the adjourn-' 
ment of the Legislature. 

The city and county are the same in territory and popula- 
tion, and up to January 1, 1859, their accounts were kept 
together. Since then two sets of accounts have been kept, and 
two sets of reports made, one for the city and one for the 
county. But the same persons and same property are taxed 
to pay the .debts and expenses of both the city and county ; 
hence they may be treated as a unit. 



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5 

WITH HONESTY THERE WOULD BE NO INCREASE 

OF DEBT. 

There was no necessity for adding a dollar to the city or 
county debts since 1868, for the taxes, assessments and annual 
income from various sources, called in the accounts the Gen- 
eral Fund, were sufficient, if administered with common pru- 
dence and honesty, to pay all the expenses of the city and 
county, as the following figures show : 

1870, Taxes levied $23,569,127 71 

1870, Assessments, new lists of 1870 6,715,071 09 

1870, GeneralFund ' 2,457,772 35 



Total for 1870 $31,741,971 15 

No account was rendered for 1869 ; but assum- 
ing it to be the same as 1870 (if not so 
they can give the pubHc the accoimts) . . . $31,741,971 15 



Total means without resort to loans . . . $63,483,942 30 
The additions to funded and bonded city and 

county debt in 1869 and 1870 were $39,279,178 84 

Hence amount expended in the two 

years $102,763,121 14 

Average expenditure per year $51,381,560 57 

The above tables include only the funded and bonded debt 
of the city and county. How large the floating debt now is 
our city rulers refuse to disclose. We know it is reckoned by 
millions, and nothing but the " Consolidated Debt Ad," which 
authorize the issue of long bonds for the whole debt of the 
city and of the county, and the stay-late clause of the so-called 
" Tivo Per Cent. Act,'' staying judgments against the city, has 
saved the City and County Treasury this year from bank- 
ruptcy. 

This floating debt in 1868 was so large that the revenue of 
the year 1869 had to be anticipated to meet it. (See Sections 
7 and 8, Chapter 853, Laws of 1868.) 



ACCUMULATED DEBT BONDS IN TWO YEARS 
$12,500,000. 

In 1869 it was overcome by authorizing the issuing of long 
seven percent, bonds, called " Accumulated Debt Bonds" (see 
Section 4, Chapter 876, Laws of 1869), and in that year 
$6,000,000 were issued. 

In 1870, for a like purpose, six and a half millions ($6,500,- 
000) of these bonds were issued, and all upon claims adjusted 
and paid by and through one and the same moM^ the Comptroller. 

WHERE THE RING GOT THEIR SUDDEN WEALTH. 

■ In a sound fiscal system one officer adjusts claims and 
another pays them. From the weakness of human nature it is 
not deemed wise or prudent for the government of any gi'eat 
city or county to allow the same officer to adjust a claim ivho is 
to pay it ; lest he may be tempted by a share of tlie money 
to conspire with the claimant and allow an unjust claim. 

But in our city, in 1869 and 1870, a siinjle officer, the Comp- 
troller, adjusted and paid, by adding so much to the permanent 
debt, $12^500,000 of claims 1 

The United States Government requires every claim to be 
investigated, first by an Auditor, then his decision to be re- 
viewed by a Comptroller ; after that a third officer examines 
the account, and, if found correct, issues the warrant on the 
Treasury for payment. 

There cannot be too mam^ checks on these public plun- 
derers. 

At the close of the Mexican war, the Third Auditor, alone, 
by an Act of Cong]-ess, was empowered to adjust and pay cer- 
tain claims for lost tools, wagons, animals and boats. The 
amounts were small. But, during the Bebellion, the word 
"boats" having been held to include " s^ea///-boats," the 
claims became large, and Congress immediately took the 
power from the Third Auditor, and required these claims, Hke 
all others, to go from the Auditor to the Comptroller, and then 
to a third officer for payment. 

Accumulated debt bonds, $12,500,000 in two years, have to 
tax-payers and public creditors a disagreeable sound. The 



Comptroller, however, in his report, kindlj saves their nerves 
by giving no light upon, and saying the least possible about, 
this unpleasant item. 

April, 1870, there were many miUions of floating claims 
against the county ; claims that the holders did not wish to 
submit to judicial investigation. 

By Section 4, of Chapter 382, Laws of 1870, the sci-utiny of 
the Courts was avoided, and the Mayor, Comptroller, and the 
then President of the then Board of Supers'isors, were author- 
ized to audit these claims, and the Comptroller to pay them by 
revenue bonds, payable in 1871. Some tax-payers were so 
ill-mannered as to allege that these claims ivere owned or con- 
trolled by the friends of the three adjusters. But the pubhc 
nerves are again saved by giving no explanation upon this 
matter. 

In one year these three gentlemen, with commendable dili- 
gence and silence, audited and paid $6,312,541 37 of these 
claims against the county, and, in so doing, absorbed in ad- 
vance the county revenues of this year. 

These officers have been repeatedly requested to give the 
pubUc a statement of the claims audited and paid under that 
section, but they disclosed nothing. 

They were then charged with having paid out on these claims, 
doubtful at best, _^ ye millions. 

The Comptroller's Keport shows $6,312,541 37 paid by issu- 
ing $6,312,000 of bonds, falling due next December. But as 
there is no money to pay these short bonds, they are, under the 
" Consolidated Debt Act," to be converted into long bonds, and 
added to the permanent debt of the county. This secret Court 
may have audited miUions more, and they may go on auditing 
and paying by issuing short bonds and then converting them 
into long bonds without hmit. It is a mine almost as rich, to 
the workers of it, as the Erie Eailroad — and controlled ])v the 
same Ring. 

We have in these two items, viz. : Claims adjusted and paid hy 
the Comptroller alone, $12,500,000, and claims adjusted by the 
trio, $6,312,541 37, and paid by one of the trio issuing $6,312,000 
of revenue bonds, the modest sum of $18,812,000 added to the 
permanent debt of the city and county. 



8 

THEY BORROW MONEY TO PAY OUR SHARE 
OF STATE TAX. 

They squandered the money wrung from the tax-payers in 
1869 and 1870 to such an extent that they were unable to pay 
the city's quota of the State taxes, and then borrowed the 
money to pay State taxes by issuing seven per cent, long 
bonds, called, by way of joke I presume, " Tax Relief Bonds," 
which of $5,767,000 they admit to have been issued, and are 
now outstanding. 

We might in that way, if capitalists would lend to us, be 
relieved entirely from taxes until the " Tax Relief Bonds," and 
interest, equaled our property, when the public creditor could 
foreclose upon us, take our whole estates, and so relieve us 
from taxes for all future time. The financial management of 
our city rulers for the last twenty-eight months would seem to 
indicate that this is their benevolent intention ! 

Our city rulers were charged last April, by their political 
opponents, with having swelled the city debt up to seventy mil- 
lions, and that, for fear of public indignation, they dared not 
make the usual reports. 

They now officially admit the funded and bonded debt at 
that time to have been over eighty -four millions — in addition 
to this is the floating debt. 

THEY INCREASE OUR DEBT ANNUALLY 
$21,486,059.40. 

They admit officially that in the last twenty-eight months 
they have added over fifty millions ($50,134,138 65) to the city 
and county funded and bonded debt, besides the floating debt. 

They admit officially, that in the last four months they have 
added nearly eleven millions ($10,854,959 81) to the city and 
county funded and bonded del>t, and this does not include the 
floating debt. 

If the wealthiest merchant in this city would allow his em- 
ployees to manage his finances in this way, he would soon be 
found in the Court of Bankruptcy. 

The city and county are subject to the same inexorable law 
of finance, and are going at a gallop down the same road. The 



9 

Mayor sees it, and as counsellor for the party that for ten years 
have ruled the city, took six weeks to prepare and shape his 
message, so as, if possible, to appease or turn aside the public 
indignation. 

He tries to save himself and friends by reference to the na- 
tional finances. 



CONTRAST BETWEEN CITY AND NATIONAL 
FINANCES. 

Let us see how the fiscal management of the city compares 
Avith that of the nation. 

The city rulers showed no account for tiuenty-eight months. 

The national rulers report in full and minutely on the first claij 
of each Tnonih, for the preceding month, furnish the report to 
the press, from Maine to California, and mail a tabular state- 
ment to every one who asks for it. 

The city rulers in the last two years 7nore than douUed the 
city debt. 

The national rulers in the same period reduced the debt of the 
nation eight -per cent., and red,uced taxation some tiventy jjer cent. 

Comptroller Connolly gives not a line of explanation of the 
$18,812,000 added to tlie city and county debt m two years, 
on claims adjusted by himself alone, and himself and the Mayor 
and President of the Board of Supervisors, but he devotes seven 
jxijes to a vain attempt to shoiu that the debt toill pay itself in forty 
years without resort to taxation, and leave a balance of twenty- 
seven millions in the treasury ! 

Where does he and the whole Pang propose to go for that 
forty years ? For, judging the future by the past, the debt 
will never be 'paid, or the Treasury contain a dollar of balance, 
so long as they hold the keys to it. 



10 

OUR WHOLE PROPERTY TO BE ENGULFED 
IN DEBT. 

Their own figures sliow this : 

The total valuation of the real and personal 

estates in the county is $1,047,520,224 00 

The net city and county funded and bonded 

debt April 30, 1871, -vas 84,541,180 56 



Present amount of real and j)ersonal estates 

not already swallowed up by the debts. . . ^ $962,979,087 44 
NoAV the Mayor, Comptroller and the Ring 

have, in the last twenty-eight months, 

added $50,134,138 65 to the debt. At 

this rate, in forty-five years, they would 

add , 966,872,573 04 

To the debt, which exceeds all our estates, 

real and personal, by 3,893,535 60 

We then shall need no more " Tax Rdief Bonds," for we shall 
have been kindly relieved by these gentlemen of our whole es- 
tates, and hence have nothiixj to he taxed. 

At the rate they have added' to the debt in the last four months, 
in thirty years they would swallow up in debt our whole 
estates and $1,396,685 46 over. 

Public servants never refuse to obey the law and show their 
hands when they have honest hands to show. 

The municipal extravagance, corruption and incapacity of 
the last twenty-eight months is unexampled in history. 

No city or county can show its equal. 

Until our city rvilers produce tljeir accounts and vouchers, 
and deliver to the public the regular quarterly' reports of the 
Auditors for the last twenty-eight months, showing io whom, 
ivhen and /'or ichat they paid the four ndllions a month spent by 
them in that period, tax-payers and the public creditors can- 
not avoid the behef that a large part of it was stolen, traitor- 
ously stolen. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 



NEW YOKK CITY COUNCIL OF POLITICAL REFORM. 



W. F. Havemeyer, 
Geo. C. Barrett, 
J. H. Ockershausen, 
Robert Haydock, 
Cephas Brainaid, 
Hooper C. Van Voorst, 
James M. Halsted, 
Jackson S. Schultz, 
Henry Nicoll, 

E. L. Fansher, 
Charles Butler, 
Zopher Mills, 
Isaac H. Bailey, 
Thos. C. ActoQ, 
C. C. Colgate, 
Hirara Merritt, 

J. C. Havemeyer, 
Robert Hue, 
Geo. Hencken. Jr., 
Richard Kelley, 
C. L. Brace, 
John Hecker, 
John Elliott, 

F. C. Bowman, 
J. C. Holden, 



John Wheeler, 

D. Willis James, 
Dexter A. Hawkins, 
John Stephenson, 
Geo. J. Hamilton, 
A. R. Wetmore, 

R. H. McCurdy, 
Alfred C. Post, M. D. 
W. Walter I'helps, 

E. B. Wesley. 
A. S. Hatch, 

J. Pierpont Morgan, 
O. S. Strong. 
John Falconer, 
Geo. P. Putnam, 
S. S. Constant, 
Allan Hay, 
W. H. Jackson, 
Elisha Harris, M. D., 
S. D. Moutton, 
Robert Sewell, 
James Davis, 
W. H. Nelson, 
Theophilus Brown, 
Richard Warren. 



H. N. BEERS, 

Secretary. 



HENRY CLEW^S, 

Banker, 32 Wall Street, 

Treasurer. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 221 619 A 



